Friday, April 20, 2018

MOVIE DIALOG OF THE DAY ― BEOWULF (2007)

Connection to the previous post (STATE OF PLAY): Robin Wright (as Robin Wright Penn in BEOWULFco-starred in both films.

Ratings: IMDB ― 6.2/10, Rotten Tomatoes ― 71%, ME ― 70%



King Hrothgar: [referring to the Royal Dragon Horn, but looking at his Queen] I wonder how many men have died for love of her beauty.
Beowulf: Can you blame them?
King Hrothgar: If you destroy my Grendel for me, she'll be yours forever and ever and ever.
Beowulf: [takes the horn in his hands] You do me great honor.
Wealthow: [asuming they are talking about her] It is we who are honored.


Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar, Ray Winstone as Beowulf, and Robin Wright Penn as Wealthow

Trivia (From IMDB):

According to Ray Winstone, he and his fellow cast spent several days filming in blue skintight suit, "showing up all your lumps and bumps in all the wrong places. Which can be hard when you're standing in front of Angelina Jolie, who looks stunning in hers."

Based on the oldest known written story in a language purporting to be English.

Most of the time when Grendel is talking in the movie, he is speaking Old English, the language in which the original poem was written, which in sound resembles modern Swedish. Interestingly, he never speaks in the original poem. He only sings a song of sorrow (which most people take to be a wail) when Beowulf rips off his arm.

According to Visual Effects Supervisor Jerome Chen, close to three hundred cameras were used, compared with sixty-four to seventy-two for The Polar Express (2004).

Beowulf is considered the oldest known piece ever written in English.

Screenwriters Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary began writing the script in May 1997.

The name "Beowulf" is a kenning of the Anglo-Saxon words for "Bear". A kenning is a phrase that is substituted for the usual name of a person or thing. It is typically comprised of two terms, with the first word added to the second in a way that conveys a meaning neither word has alone. Therefore, "Beowulf" comes from "Bee-Wolf", meaning "Bear".

Model Rachel Bernstein (uncredited) was the body double for Angelina Jolie in the film's nude scenes.

Crispin Glover portrays Grendel in a similar motion-capture method as Andy Serkis did for Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Glover and Serkis were both born of the same day; April 20, 1964.

Crispin Glover's first project with Director Robert Zemeckis since Back to the Future (1985).

Paramount Pictures hired Knott's Berry Farm in Orange County, California, to produce a walk-through maze based on this movie for its 35th Annual Halloween Haunt, held every October at the theme park. Sony Pictures The Grudge 2 (2006) was the only previous maze produced at the Haunt by a major movie studio.

Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman's original plan was for Avary to direct on a modest budget. He had story-boarded several scenes and had a few European shooting locations scouted. His intended style would have been heavily influenced by Roman Polanski's Macbeth(1971) and Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky (1977). However, studios were unable to see the potential with his intended vision, so he ended up selling the project to Robert Zemeckis.

Roger Avary had originally intended to direct. Robert Zemeckis' friend and partner Steve Bing, who produced The Polar Express (2004), purchased the script for two million dollars, so Zemeckis could direct.

Writer Roger Avary directed a musical version of Beowulf for the Parisian stage after his debut film Killing Zoe (1993).

Screenwriters Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary met, after Avary became the writer for a proposed film adaptation of Gaiman's acclaimed Sandman graphic novel. Gaiman loved his script, but the studio found it "too weird" and had Avary replaced with Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. Finding their sensibilities very compatible, the pair went on a vacation to Baja, Mexico where they sequestered themselves in their hotel room and didn't leave until they had something. That something ended up being Beowulf's first draft.

(at around 1h 2 mins) In the film, there is a point in which Sir Anthony Hopkins (King Hrothgar) says, "Odin be praised." Hopkins went on to play the Norse god Odin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In some areas, release prints were delivered to theaters with the fake titles "Epic" or "Sally".

Keeping in mind that the etymology of the name Beowulf originates in the Old English "beo-wulf" (translated as bee-wolf referring to a bear), notice that the embossed crest on Beowulf's leather chest plate armor is a stylized bear.

When Neil Gaiman co-wrote Beowulf (2007), people thought he said Baywatch (1989) instead.

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